Help Me, Before I Fall

“Un-pack your shit. Do it quick. You have school in 6 hours.” My mother barked, glaring at me. I simply nodded and went down to my new room. Yea, that’s right, school starts in 6 hours, and I don’t get to go to bed… instead, I have to un-pack. Oh joy. This is gonna be fun *note sarcasm* Time went by quickly and soon it was 6 am.

“You bitch!! Get fucking ready.” That guy barked at me pounding on my door.

“Shut the hell up asshole!!!” I called out. Bad move.. but can you blame me? I’m exhausted, I’ve been up all night.

“You fucking little bitch .” I heard him come pounding down the stairs. He came up to me, grabbed me by the hair, and threw me over into the wall. I yelped. “DON’T YOU EVER TALK TO ME LIKE THAT!! YOU HEAR ME YOU UNGRATEFUL BITCH!!” I felt tears in my eyes as I looked at myself in the mirror. I went to the bathroom and took a shower, then went back to my closet and pulled out my outfit for today. It consisted of mostly black. I did my make-up, grabbed my bag, cell, and car keys. No, school doesn’t start for another 45 minutes…. But I’ll do anything to get out of his house. I walked out to my car and smiled. No one EVER touched my baby. Even my mom knew not to touch her. She was my dad’s… it was one of the 2 things I had left of him. I hopped in and threw my bag in the passengers seat. I started my car, put in one of my mixed cd’s and backed out. What’s really cool about my car, is that it plays the cd on shuffle. I smiled as Love Drunk came through the speakers. I pulled into the parking lot 6 minutes later, no cars were there, no surprise. I looked down for a second to pull out my key then looked back up. I nearly screamed and held my hand to my chest as I saw the red car, parked a few spots away from mine.

“Holy shit!!!!” I took a shaky breath and shook my head. “It was probably already there.” I said to myself. I looked at the car again and smiled… “Not bad, BMW Convertible…. Nice.” I looked back down, not paying any attention to see if any one was in the car. I played a few threw the cd before I got out of my car noticing that almost the entire parking lot was full. I jumped back, just as a Volvo drove by and parked next to me… lucky me. I walked a few steps, my head down, before a guy and girl got out. I ended up following them to the front of the building.

“Everyone is staring at us.”

“Not that guy… no, he just looked.” New couple? “I’m breaking all the rules now anyway… since I’m going to hell!” The guy put his arm around the girl. They walked forward together…. Yea… new couple. I glanced up every now and then as I made my way to the office. I walked in and looked up at the woman behind the desk.

“Can I help you?”

“Yea, My name is Hailey James… I’m new.”

“Oh, yes that’s right. Here, let me get your schedule.” She smiled at me and grabbed a few papers off her desk. “This is your schedule, that is a map of the school. You need to have all your teachers sign this paper, then bring it back after school. You have a book bag?” I nodded “Good, I’ll expect you’ll be getting your books today. Have a nice day sweetheart.” I forced a smile at her, then left. I glanced at my schedule.

“First period, English. Second Period, Government. Third, Study Hall. Fourth, French II. Fifth, Lunch, lunch is a class?? Weird school. Sixth, Biology II. My last class is PE… you’ve gotta be kidding.” I mumbled to myself, then looked at the map as I walked, trying to memorize it before the day fully started.

“Hi, Your Hailey James, right? The new girl?”

“Is that my title…. ‘The new girl’?” Anyway.. yes, I’m Hailey.”

“I’m Eric. If you ever need any help, like, getting around to class or a shoulder to cry on…. Feel free to ask.”

“Thanks, but no thanks. I’m more of the… suffer in silence kind of girl.” He stopped walking, and looked at me. “What?”

“Nothing.. just.. a few weeks ago, Bella moved here… she said the same thing. Anyway.. maybe we can use it for your feature.”

“Feature?”

“Yea, I work for the paper… your news here.. and I mean front page.”

“No. No, no, no, no, no. You can’t- I mean… i’m not that interesting.” I stuttered.

“Ok, ok. Calm down. No feature.” He chuckled to himself. “You are just like Bella. I’ll have to introduce you to her… I think you’ll get along great.”

“Uhm… I have a question. Where do I go for my first class?” I showed Eric my schedule.

“Oh. It’s right there.” He pointed to a building in front of me. “I gotta go.. but I’ll see you soon.” I nodded and he ran off. My guess was to his class. I walked forward to my first class. I stood there for 3 minutes before I cleared my throat. The teacher looked up, surprised.

“Oh, Hello.”

“Hi.” I smiled. “I’m Hailey James,-“

“The new girl, yes.” He smiled. “These are your books, let me see if I have another seat available.” He smiled at me, handed me a book, then looked at a seating chart. “Ah, here we go.. You can sit next to Isabella.”

“Um.. Wh-“

“Isabella could you raise your hand?” The girl who had said something about people staring raised her hand. I smiled and walked over to her.

“Hi.” I mumbled

“Hi.” She mumbled back. Was she also shy?? “I’m Bella. Your Hailey right?”

“Yes…” I said, confused. Why hadn’t she called me ‘the new girl’

“Is everything ok? Do you not want to be called Hailey?”

“No, no, that’s not it… it’s just. Everyone I’ve talked to so far has referred to me as ‘The New Girl’ I was surprised you hadn’t.”

“Oh, well, I was ‘The New Girl’ until, about 2 days ago, when word of you coming here started . So, I know how it feels. I figured you don’t like it, so I decided not to call you it.” She smiled at me. “So, I was thinking, you should sit with me and my boyfriend at lunch. I’m sure you and his family would get along great, especially with Alice.”

“Yea. That sounds cool.” I smiled, and paid attention to the teacher. Maybe this won’t be so bad.